


sincerely yours

by lilaliacs



Category: Produce 101 (TV), Wanna One (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - The Breakfast Club Fusion, M/M, Underage Drug Use, enemies to lovers ig, it basically follows the plot of the movie so, mentions of sex and child abuse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-03
Updated: 2017-12-03
Packaged: 2019-02-10 05:22:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 15,440
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12904977
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lilaliacs/pseuds/lilaliacs
Summary: You see us as you want to see us: in the simplest terms and the most convenient definitions. But what we found out is that each one of us is . . .a brain.And an athlete.And a basket case.A princess.And a criminal.Does that answer your question?





	sincerely yours

Highschool was a place that nobody particularly liked to be at. Students didn’t because it was the place that gathered all their worst fears and mixed them with deadlines and barely edible food from the cafeteria. Teachers didn’t, because it meant work and moody teenagers. Jaehwan didn’t because he was a janitor and the teachers may whine and complain all they wanted but his job truly was the worst around here. 

He would love to swap with any teacher. Yelling at teenagers and writing a few words in red pen all day seemed like something that would be way more fun than cleaning up said teenagers’ messes. 

Jaehwan especially didn’t like to be there on Saturdays, the grey floors and walls seemed even more life-draining in the neonlights when they were completely empty. It was a small consolation to him that on this day, March 24th 1984, he would be joined by five students and one unfortunate teacher who all wanted to be there maybe even less than Jaehwan. He was at least earning money here. All these kids would be getting out of this was less time for literally everything else that was more fun in life than detention, he thought, as he unlocked the front door of the school building exactly 23 minutes after he should have arrived. 

The sound of screeching tires made him look back to the parking lot. It seemed like a huge expensive car, a brand he couldn’t have pronounced even if he cared, had just narrowly avoided a pedestrian. The boy didn’t seem all that shaken by his near death experience, just kicked against a tire of the car once, aimlessly. The action didn’t seem angry or particularly ambitious, he was just doing it for the hell of it. Jaehwan snickered quietly to himself as the driver of the car still angrily honked. He had just nearly killed the boy but of course he was more concerned with the well-being of his car. Rich people. 

The boy flipped the driver off, which earned him another honk and made his way up the stairs. 

“Good morning, Jihoon, glad you didn’t die just then!” Jaehwan greeted him with a grin. 

“Can’t relate.” Jihoon grinned back before disappearing into the building. Jaehwan laughed loudly before following him inside and making his way to the supply room. 

***

“You just nearly killed a student, Dad.” Daehwi pointed out, but his father didn’t seem to listen, just kept grumbling about the respect the youth didn’t have and about what would happen if he found just one scratch on his baby and about how this car probably cost more than that boy’s entire existence.

Daehwi sighed, then tried a bit louder: “I can’t believe I have to be here. On a Saturday. _In school_.” 

That made his father perk up. “Well, buddy”, he started in the same tone he always called him that. Talking down to Daehwi but pretending to be his friend anyways. “You should have thought about that before you skipped class to go out for milkshakes with your friends, hm?” 

“Yes, dad.” He huffed. 

“Well, we can’t change anything about this, anyways. And it’s just one Saturday, just try to enjoy it and you’ll be back out in no time!” 

“Yes dad, being locked in the library for hours with some random people I never talked to and nothing to do definitely sounds like an enjoyable time.” Daehwi rolled his eyes. 

As always, the sarcasm went right over his father’s head. “See, that’s the spirit!” He smiled, and patted Daehwi’s shoulder once. 

“Have fun!” He heard his father call once he got out of the car and slowly made his way up the stairs. He rolled his eyes again and huffed out a deep sigh. 

He should’ve just pretended to be sick. His father surely would have let him stay home and convinced the school to let the whole business pass. He briefly considered going to the payphone inside immediately and calling his landline, to tell his mother that he wasn’t feeling well so she would make his father turn around and pick him back up the minute he got home. Or maybe she would tell their house-keeper to come and pick him up because his father and her had an important business appointment or something. 

The telltale sound of heels clicking against the stone of the stairs interrupted his thought process. 

“Mr. Lee, I’m glad to see you’re gracing us with your presence.” Mrs. Kwon had a talent for seeming nice and unthreatening in most situations, but she was probably the scariest person in school right after the cafeteria lady who Daehwi was pretty sure was out to poison all of them. 

“I didn’t really have a choice in the matter, Miss.” He gave back. It could have come off as slightly passive-aggressive, because that’s what he was. Letting it out on his terrifying Economics teacher probably was not the best idea though. 

“Well, you could have just chosen to not skip class.” She sounded chipper, but the coldness of her smile told Daehwi that now was probably a good moment to stop trying his luck. 

“You’re right, Miss.” He smiled and quickly made his way inside, to the library. 

***

“Honey, you know you have that Chemistry quiz on Tuesday.” 

“Yes, Mom.” 

“And you still need to prepare for the Geography presentation next Friday.” 

“Yes, Mom.” 

“So what will you be doing today?” 

“I’ll study, Mom. We’ve been over this.” 

“Good. And you have all the books you need with you?” 

Guanlin barely avoided groaning and slamming his head against the dashboard. “I’ll be sitting in a library full with every book I could ever need on all the subjects I have, I think I’ll be fine.” 

“Don’t forget to revise that French vocabulary!” 

“Of course not, Mom.” 

His mother looked deep in thought about other homework or studying duties she had listed for Guanlin the entire car-ride over here. Before she could remember the English assignment he was supposed to be also doing, he quickly unbuckled his seat belt. 

“I just saw Mrs. Kwon go in, I should hurry.” 

“Alright. Use the time well! I know you won’t do anything stupid again, right?” His mom called after him, nearly drowned out by his little sister yelling for him to have a good time. 

That was easier said than done. His sister wouldn’t have to sit here for 8 hours to do the exact same work he would have been doing if it had been a normal Saturday and he had been at home. That thought was depressing, he realized, as he entered the library and sat down at one of the tables without looking at the other students already there. 

At least Mrs. Kwon wouldn’t be constantly looming over him and remind him of all the work he still had to do. Maybe this wouldn’t be too bad. 

When the boy at the desk next to him started obnoxiously popping the gum he was chewing, and the one at the very front desk fell into a rhythm of sighing in annoyance after every third pop, his hope crippled. He could have maybe asked him to stop, but Guanlin had understood in the few months that he’d gone to this school that one did not simply ask Park Jihoon to stop anything he was doing. 

He had to say, the boy didn’t even look that intimidating up close. He sure looked like he was trying to be, with his outfit supposed to look carelessly thrown togetherb ut the denim jacket and the red flannel were both way too big on him and it only accentuated that Jihoon wasn’t on the tall side. Guanlin thought that about most people, though. 

Another pop. 

“Listen.” The boy in the front exasperatedly turned around to face Jihoon. “This whole business hasn’t even officially started yet and we have to do this for five more hours. At least _try_ to not make me wanna kill you yet.” 

“Ohhh, scary.” Jihoon leaned forward in his chair with a grin. “What you’re even in for, princess?” 

“None of your business.” He answered and turned around, seemingly deeming the conversation not worth his time. Guanlin suspected he might have been right, judging from the brands the boy was wearing, his time was very expensive. 

 

***

It was a peculiar mix of students that Jinyoung walked in on when he entered the library. Saturday detention held a more or less varying cast of more or less the same sad characters, but this Saturday seemed to be a mid-season special. 

Jinyoung considered himself a regular in this shit-show, alongside Park Jihoon. But the usual two or three trouble makers that had managed to get caught by a teacher doing god knows what for the past few weeks weren’t present now. In their stead were two kids that Jinyoung had never seen before, in detention, that is. 

He definitely had seen Lee Daehwi in the school corridors before, loud and bright and popular- everything Jinyoung wasn’t. It seemed kind of surreal to him that he would be spending the next 8 hours in the same room as Daehwi, kind of like two opposite poles were being forced together, two different dimensions merging in the library of this small high school in Illinois. 

Jinyoung wasn’t sure about the other boy’s name, but he knew that he was a transfer student and in his math class and usually sat alone outside for lunch- like Jinyoung. 

As he sat down in his usual spot at the very back, he tried to remember if he’d ever talked to the transfer student, or Daehwi. No matter how much he raked his mind, he couldn’t think of any instances of that happening, and while he searched his bag for his trusty sketchbook he thought he would probably be fine with keeping it that way. 

“Hey, weirdo.” Jihoon’s voice suddenly sounded in his direction. He had apparently given up on trying to annoy a reaction out of Daehwi. 

“Hey, asshole.” Jinyoung gave back. He didn’t have to look up from where he was looking for his pencil to know that Jihoon was grinning. 

He didn’t know when it happened but at some point Jihoon seemed to have accepted him as the only other constant of Saturday detention other than himself and Jaehwan. They were a weird trio in that sense, seeing as they could not be more different - the school trouble-maker, weirdo and janitor of all things- but they had built some kind of solidarity of Saturday-suffering. 

It didn’t mean he and Jihoon were friends, it just meant they accepted each other’s presence once a week for 8 hours. That was more time than other people sometimes accepted their existence for. 

As the clock on the wall was nearing the official start of those 5 hours, Jinyoung finally found his pencil buried under a scarf he had stuffed in his bag. He looked down at his sketchbook and actually didn’t plan to look up from it until he was supposed to go home again, but after not more than a minute, he went back on that resolve. 

The library door opened way more forcibly than a door to a room with the word “QUIET!” pasted on every wall should. Jinyoung suspected it to be Mrs. Kwon, slightly early and possibly in a bad mood. But only a second after it had hit the wall, (Jinyoung had seen the transfer student in front of him jump at the noise) Jihoon whistled. 

“Oh, _hello_.” 

It caught Jinyoung’s attention for two reasons. One, because nobody, especially not Jihoon would survive whistling at Mrs. Kwon like that. Two, Jinyoung was about 79% sure the rumour about Jihoon being gay that went around school two years ago was true. 

 

***

His father’s words before he left the car were still echoing in his head as he walked to the library. 

_”You know you can’t afford this, Woojin. They’re not gonna give a scholarship to a discipline case. Next time you better not let yourself get caught.”_

He scoffed to himself. It was like his father thought he wanted to spend his Saturday in detention. It was like his father thought he’d done it out of his own will. 

He was still caught up in his angry inner monologue when he reached the library and only snapped out of it with the noise of the door slamming against the wall. He definitely hadn’t meant to make this kind of entrance, actually he would’ve had preferred to make no kind of entrance at all, to pretend he wasn’t there. The most preferable option was to not actually be there. 

But there he was and the eyes of the four boys in front of him were definitely on him. Before he could make any kind of excuse though, one of them whistled. 

“Oh, _hello_.” He said, in that way that let you know someone was grinning even when you weren’t looking at them. 

If Woojin hadn’t been looking at Jihoon, he maybe would have just ignored it and went on about his life, but since he was in fact looking at Jihoon, and it was in fact Jihoon he was looking at, he held his gaze and narrowed his eyes to a glare.

Park Jihoon went against everything Woojin stood for. 

He couldn’t currently name anything he stood for that Jihoon went against, he was way too caught up in glaring, but he knew on principle that it was the case and it was on principle that he hated Jihoon’s guts. 

Jihoon returned only a cheery smile. “You should sit down at one point, hot stuff.” He chirped and gestured at the desks around them. “There’s enough chairs to go around, you know?” 

He pulled out the one right next to him and patted it invitingly with the same wicked smile on his face. Woojin rolled his eyes and went straight for where Daehwi was sitting in the front. He shot him a half-hearted smile as he plopped down in the chair next to him and then turned to the front again. 

It wasn’t that he didn’t like Daehwi, they were just not particularly close, despite having a similar circle of friends. Also, Jihoon was right behind them and Woojin suspected that he would nag his way into any conversation he and Daehwi would have started. He definitely didn’t want to talk to Jihoon. Maybe he just wouldn’t talk at all. Eight hours of silence sounded better than even one minute of conversation with Jihoon. 

It didn’t seem like he was getting even a second of silence. 

“Fancy seeing you here.” Jihoon started and leaned forward as if it was a normal conversation starter for detention. “Now what did you two poster children ever do wrong in your lives for the educational system to fuck you over and have you stay in school on Saturdays? Did they catch you making out in the locker rooms or something?” 

He got back only silence and seemed to interpret it colossally wrong because he added: “No judgement, by the way, happens to the best of us.” 

More silence. Jihoon seemed set on not getting the hint or just very set on getting an answer. “So did you two fuck or not?” 

Daehwi was apparently going to ignore the comments. Woojin wasn’t gifted with that sort of patience and was just about to turn around, when a voice cut through from the front of the room. 

“Language, Mr. Park.” 

“I’m sorry, Mrs. Kwon.” Jihoon turned to smile at the teacher. “I was just trying to find out if these two dashing young gentlemen were per chance put in your very capable hands for Saturday detention because they were caught in any obscene acts.” He shrugged, a grin still on his lips. “You know. Anal.” 

Again, Woojin was just about to retort something, but Mrs. Kwon was faster than him. “That’s none of your business and I advice you to lay low. You know how this goes, Jihoon.” 

“How what goes, Miss?” 

Woojin could hear in his tone that he knew exactly what she was talking about. Mrs. Kwon knew that too but either she was being generous or it was too early in the morning, because she let it go and turned to the rest of them. 

“Well, boys, I assume you all know why you’re here, and I assume you’ll use the next eight hours to think about why you’re here. Foremostly I hope that after these eight hours you won’t give me any more reason to have you back here next week.” 

She handed out some sheets of paper to all of them while continuing: “As a motivation of sorts, I want all of you to write an essay today. 1000 words on the subject of who you think you are. I’m sure you’ll find that maybe the person that you are right now is not the person that you want to be when you grow up. I hope that today will be a first step for you to realize what you have to do to become who you want to be.” 

“Oh, I’m gonna cry.” Jihoon muttered under his breath. 

“What was that, Mr. Park?” 

“Nothing, Miss.” 

“Wonderful. I’ll be in my office. I’d appreciate if you wouldn’t give me any reason to come back here and check on you, you’re not kindergarteners.” 

The sounds of her heels against the floor were the only noise as she left the library, until she was out of earshot and Jihoon released a long high pitched sigh. “Man, what a snake.” 

He got up and walked between the rows of chairs aimlessly. “Shouldn’t we close that door? It’ll be way more homey. We can have our own Saturday morning sleepover.” Woojin just wanted to try and ignore him, but Jihoon caught his eyes with a wink. “You show me yours, I’ll show you mine?” 

“Be quiet.” Woojin bit out between his teeth. 

“Hm, you’re kinda sexy when you’re angry.” Jihoon grinned. 

“God, shut your mouth.” 

“Make me.” 

Woojin started to get out of his seat. “Oh, I will-” 

“Guys!” The boy on the middle desk interrupted them. “Maybe we should all just sit down and write our essays, Mrs. Kwon is gonna-” 

“She’s not gonna do anything, she doesn’t even care for the essays.” Jihoon cut him off, then jogged up to the library door. It was held open by a bolt at the top and that’s what Jihoon started fumbling with. 

“Jihoon!” The boy called again. “Just leave it.” 

Daehwi joined in: “It’s a stupid idea, Park. Just sit down.” 

“Have you know-it-alls even _started_ your essays?” Jihoon asked from where he was still fighting with the screw. “Take Jinyoung back there as an example. He’s working hard to please the snake.” 

Woojin had only barely realized the fifth boy’s presence. When he turned around to him now he really saw him quickly scribbling down things in a notebook, but apparently he wasn’t actually writing the essay.

“He’s sketching.” The boy in front of him informed the rest of them unprompted. 

He didn’t get a reply. Instead, he got a soft pling and a deeper thud, as the screw came lose and the door fell shut. Turning around, Woojin saw Jihoon stuffing the screw into his pocket as he quickly made his way back to where he previously had been sitting.

Only a few second later, the door swung back open and Mrs. Kwon was glaring at them again. 

***

“Why is this door closed?” Mrs. Kwon inquired. Her eyes were immediately on Jihoon. He maybe would have been offended by the unspoken accusation, if she hadn’t been right. Now, he was just amused. 

It amused him even more when the other boys started making excuses for what he’d messed up. It could have made for some sense of solidarity, if Jihoon hadn’t known they were only doing it for their own good. 

“We’re just sitting here.” Daehwi assured the teacher and Woojin nodded. “It just fell shut. I think a screw got loose.” 

“Bullshit.” Mrs. Kwon gave back. The poor little transfer student across from Jihoon looked shocked at her choice of language. Jihoon did his best not to break down laughing and he could see Jinyoung do the same behind the kid. You learned the real side of this school’s most respected teacher when you spent some Saturdays in detention with her. 

“Park.” She stepped closer to him. “Why’s the door shut?” 

“Why are you asking me? I don’t know the door’s motivations, Miss, I’ve never been a door. It’s quite hard to psychoanalyse inanimate objects, I believe. Maybe it had daddy issues?” 

“Where’s the screw, Jihoon?” She asked again. He could tell her patience was wearing thin. 

“I don’t know.” He repeated. “Screws fall out all the time in this imperfect world. I won’t be the one to tell them no on their way to freedom.” 

“You’re finding this way too fun.” She informed him, her gaze was ice. “Maybe you’d care to join me for Saturday next week and look for the missing screw then?” 

“Oh, I’d love to, Miss. It’s always a pleasure to help you out.” He couldn’t resist the urge to rile her up. “By the way, does Molly Ringwald’s grandmother know you raided her closet? Will she be here next week as well?” 

“You got yourself another Saturday, Mr. Park.” 

“Oh, joyful day.” 

“Do you wanna go on?” 

“I don’t know, do you?” 

“I can do this all day. Have another one.” 

“You’re too good to me.” 

“I’d stop if I was you, I can have you spend every Saturday for the rest of your time at this school in this very seat.” Her tone told Jihoon that he was quite serious about this and he was seething. 

Adults thought that simply being an adult gave them any power over you. Teachers especially loved to use their authority to show students just how inferior they were, and Jihoon was quite frankly sick of it. He wouldn’t back down just because this woman could get off by playing her power. 

“Bite me, Boa.” He spat. 

“That’s the sixth consecutive Saturday, congratulations.” Jihoon knew she wouldn’t back down and that knowledge riled him up to do the same. 

“Oh you must like that, 6 is the devil’s number after all!” 

“Stop it!” The dude in front of him hissed. 

“Yeah, Mrs. Kwon. Stop it!” Jihoon mocked him. The boy scoffed and it was all Jihoon could do not to laugh. He probably hadn’t talked back to a teacher once in his life, probably because no teacher ever gave him a reason to. The varsity jacket the guy was wearing meant that the entire population of this school probably kissed the ground he walked on. Jihoon really wondered how he and everybody’s darling next to him had ended up here. 

“Well Mr. Park, I’m looking forward to your company on Saturdays for the next two months then.” The smile Mrs. Kwon sent him was icy. “Gentlemen, I hope you’re all working on your essays.” 

And with that she abruptly turned and walked off again. 

“Are you happy now?” Varsity Jacket asked. 

“Well, she backed down.” Jihoon gave back with a grin. 

“God, you’re stupid.” The other boy in the front rolled his eyes. 

“Well, princess, not everyone can afford private tutors, you know?” 

He just turned back to the front, but the other boy’s eyes stayed on Jihoon. Jihoon held his gaze for a while just to see what would happen but when nothing did happen, he raised his eyebrows in question. The boy just scoffed again and went back to ignoring Jihoon’s existence. Win-Win situation. 

***

Daehwi got bored a lot but he didn’t think he’d ever been as bored as he was now. He could have written the essay they were supposed to write, he could have went and see if the library held anything interesting against all odds, but doing something actually productive in detention kind of hurt his pride. 

He could have talked to Woojin, but he wouldn’t know what to talk about. They were friends, he guessed, but they hadn’t ever hung out just the two of them, just with other people around during lunch or at parties - no situations that required any conversation perse. 

So he was left listening to the ticking of the clock and Jihoon behind him chewing away on his gum way too loudly still. It was excruciating and Daehwi nearly sighed in relief when Jihoon got up from his seat and went over to a shelf. The relief was short-lived when Jihoon picked up a book and promptly started ripping it up. 

“What are you doing?” Daehwi called out. 

“What does it look like I’m doing?” Jihoon didn't look up. 

“That’s Shakespeare.” The transfer student chimed in. 

Jihoon stopped in his tracks and looked at the torn up front of the book. “It sure is.” He agreed, before ripping it off completely. 

“That’s school property, you know?” Woojin pointed out. 

“So are you, Honey.” Jihoon smiled and motioned to the school’s emblem on Woojin’s chest. 

“I love Shakespeare’s works!” The transfer student suddenly cut in. The look on his face told Daehwi that he was probably trying to diffuse the tension of the conversation. Daehwi appreciated the effort even though no tension was diffused.

Jihoon opened the book at a random page he hadn’t ripped up yet and read: “Go hang yourselves all! You are idle, shallow things; I am not of your element.” He dropped his terrible rendition of a british accent and added: “Hey, maybe good old Willy had a point.” 

He didn’t believe in coincidence but Daehwi had to say he admired the irony of Jihoon finding that precise quote randomly. He barely suppressed a smile and immediately wished he hadn’t because Jihoon pointed a finger at him. 

“It can show positive emotions!” 

Daehwi rolled his eyes and muttered: “Fuck off.” Before going back to his original resolve to ignore Jihoon. It hadn’t really worked out so far, Jihoon was just _that_ obnoxious, but that didn’t mean Daehwi would give up trying. He turned to Woojin. 

“Did Hyungseob tell you about his party tonight?” 

Woojin nodded, seemingly glad to have a distraction other than glaring at Jihoon. “Are you going?” 

Daehwi shrugged. “I don’t know yet.” He didn’t want to go. He liked Hyungseob but most of the people there, despite being his ‘friends’ would be insufferable. “Are you?” 

Before Woojin could answer, the transfer student chimed in: “Aren’t you grounded or something?” 

Both of them turned to look at him. He squirmed under the sudden attention and added: “I mean, you got detention, didn’t your parents ground you for the weekend?” 

“Did _your_ parents ground you for the weekend?” Daehwi asked. 

The boy shrugged again, then nodded. 

“Cute.” Jihoon let the remnants of the book drop to the floor. 

“How is that cute?” Daehwi inquired. 

“His parents care enough to do that.” Jihoon explained matter-of-factly. He placed a hand on his chest. “I was never grounded in my life.” 

“Oh, boo-hoo.” Woojin muttered under his breath. 

Daehwi could tell that Jihoon had heard him and he also could tell that he deliberately acted like he hadn’t, when he continued louder than before: “My parents don’t want to see my face any more than they do, they probably think grounding me would be more a punishment to them than me.” 

Something about that statement riled Daehwi up. “So you think our parents care about us, just because they give us punishments?” 

“Don’t your parents care about you, princess?” Jihoon shot back. 

“They pretend that they do.” Daehwi didn’t know himself why he was being so honest. “I don’t think they cared about me one day of my life.” 

A loud scoff from behind him made Daehwi turn around. The boy in the very back, Jinyoung, Jihoon had called him earlier, was looking directly at him. There was something challenging in his eyes, something scornful that Daehwi couldn’t quite decipher and Jinyoung didn’t provide any translation to. He just held Daehwi’s gaze for a few seconds, blew out his cheeks and then directed his attention back to his sketchbook. 

It was quiet for a moment after that. It seemed liked none of them really knew what to make out of it, until the transfer student spoke up again. “Parents do these things because they love you.” He said, but he sounded like he didn’t believe himself. “To protect you.” 

“What fairytale did you get that from?” Jihoon laughed and stepped closer to the boy. 

“That’s what they want you to think, kid. It’s a lie just like all affection and care they ever pretend to show you is a lie.” He pointed back at Daehwi. “Ask our majesty back there, he seems to know a lot about it.” 

He barked out another laugh and was just about to turn away, when the boy started to retort: “My mom-” 

“Listen.” Jihoon interrupted him with a sigh. “I can tell from the terrible clothes you’re wearing that your mother is probably a professional at the whole ‘I Love My Children’ act. Let me guess, she packs you lunch made with love and buys you all the books you want and when you’re sick she makes you soup?” He waited for the boy’s reluctant nod. “Well, sugar. It’s fake. She probably can’t wait for you and your average of 2.3 siblings to leave the house.” 

“Leave him alone.” Woojin piped in. As much as Daehwi didn’t want the two of them to fight, he was glad that Woojin had spoken up. The transfer student looked more than uncomfortable. 

“I’m just explaining to the little tadpole here what the real world is like. He has to learn somewhere, don’t you think? This is an institution of learning after all.” 

“He has a name, you know?” 

“Oh, does he?” 

“Yeah.” Woojin turned to the boy. “What’s your name?” 

“Lai Guanlin.” He gave back, his voice tiny. 

“Well, Guanlin.” Jihoon cheerily chirped. “Life is not like it’s in your books, neither your parents nor the rest of society care about you no matter how much you try to be a model citizen. Sociology lesson over, class dismissed.” 

“The next lesson should be for you to learn to shut your mouth.” Woojin bit. 

Jihoon tilted his head and stared at him for a few silent moments. “What’s _your_ name?” He asked then, out of the blue. 

“Woojin.” 

“Do people usually shut up when you tell them to, Woojin?” 

“I don’t usually associate myself with people I have to tell to shut up.” 

Daehwi couldn’t help but smile bitterly at that. He could name tons of people he and Woojin were associated with that he’d wanted to shut up constantly. 

Jihoon picked up on it and gestured to him. “He doesn’t seem to think so. What do they call you, princess?” 

Daehwi let the smile drop from his lips. “Daehwi. And I _do_ think you should stop talking.” 

“Oh, you wound me, Daehwi.” 

“He’s right, though.” Woojin spoke up again. “Nobody cares about anything you said so far and nobody will. You might as well not be here.” 

***

Guanlin regretted ever having asked if Woojin and Daehwi were grounded. He hated fights. He didn’t even know any of these people personally but the tension in the room was already becoming unbearable. 

He had to admit that what Woojin had just said had been kind of harsh. He was sure Jihoon had friends in this school that would miss him if he wasn’t here. 

“God, I wish I wasn’t here or at this school.” Jihoon seemed unfazed as he sat down on the table right in front of Woojin. “What do you say, we get out of here, just the two of us, stud?” He winked exaggeratedly. Woojin just rolled his eyes in return. 

“Aw, c’mon, I know this great place down Lafayette Street” Jihoon grinned and raised a hand to straighten Woojin’s jacket at the neck. “Real cozy, real romant-” 

He was cut off by Woojin slapping his hand away and hissing: “Don’t touch me.” 

Jihoon was still grinning, but it was smaller now, challenging. It send a small shiver down Guanlin’s spine. “Or what?” He asked, And stood up from the table. 

Woojin stood up as well. “I don’t think you want to find out.” 

He was slightly taller than Jihoon and Guanlin thought to himself as Woojin glared down at Jihoon that he would probably back down in Jihoon’s stead.

Jihoon didn’t back down. “I think I do.” He gave back and reached up again, to clear some non existent dust from Woojin’s chest this time. Guanlin had to say he was kind of impressed with how fast Woojin had Jihoon in a headlock, but he still wanted them to stop. 

He briefly considered getting up and trying to pry them from each other, but objectively that was a terrible idea and would never work. Subjectively Guanlin didn’t have the guts to do it. 

Jihoon struggled against Woojin’s grip for a moment, before seemingly giving up and saying: “We should stop this.” 

_Yes! Please do!_ Guanlin cheered in his head, but he didn’t dare to say it out loud. 

“Or what?” Woojin mocked Jihoon’s words from a few minutes ago. 

“Or I’ll kill you.” Jihoon answered nonchalantly. 

Woojin scoffed, but still let go of him and pushed him away in the process. “Sure you will.” 

Jihoon nodded. “Mhm. I’ll kill you and then your parents will sue me and the whole school community will be very sad for a week or two.” 

Woojin scoffed again and turned away to sit back down but halted when a metallic click sounded through the library. 

Jihoon was holding a butterfly-knife and stared back at Woojin with the same nonchalant expression he had before. “Sounds like a fun time to you?” 

He slowly put down the knife on the table next to him and shrugged his denim jacket back onto the shoulder it had come off from when Woojin had pushed him away. Guanlin could see Jinyoung, the quiet boy in the very back, slowly grab for the knife. He was kind of relieved when Jinyoung managed to slip it into his bag without Jihoon noticing, even though he could just hope that Jinyoung had less violent uses for it than Jihoon seemed to have. 

Even though Guanlin didn’t think that Jihoon actually had meant anything of what he’d just said. He might have been a troublemaker and something of an asshole, but to Guanlin he didn’t seem like he’d actually follow through with such gruesome things. Bark, no bite, Guanlin’s father would call it. Guanlin would never say that to Jihoon’s face though. 

The two of them stared at each other for some more tense seconds, until they were interrupted by the door opening. Guanlin jumped a bit in his seat and thanked the heavens for Jinyoung making the knife disappear before Mrs. Kwon came in. 

His poor heart calmed down a bit when he realized that it wasn’t Mrs. Kwon that had come in, but the janitor. 

“Good morning, ladies.” He greeted, way too cheerful. He didn’t seem aware of the tense situation he had just barged in on. “I hope we’re all having a good time?” 

“Splendid, Jaehwan. A superb jolly good time.” Jihoon replied just as cheerily while he sat back down in his seat as if nothing had happened. 

Woojin took a few more seconds to do the same. 

“Glad to hear.” Mr. Kim didn’t seem interested in holding up any more of a conversation, but Jihoon didn’t care. 

“Say, Jaehwan.” He spoke up. “What do you _do_ around here?” 

“What do you mean?” 

“Like your job. What does one have to do to be a janitor?” 

“Do _you_ wanna be a janitor, Jihoon?” 

“Ah, no. But you see, Daehwi here is really interested.” 

“I see.” Jaehwan nodded. Guanlin could see that he didn’t believe Jihoon. “Well, kids, as a janitor I know everything about you.” 

“What does that even mean?” Woojin inquired. 

“It means that I’m the eyes and ears of this institution, Park.” Jaehwan smiled conspiratorially. “I know about all of your little secrets and all the knacks of this building.” 

He finished emptying the trash bin and pointed to the clock on the wall above them while packing up to leave again. 

“This clock for example is 10 minutes fast.” He cackled at the groans from the five boys. “And Jihoon stores weed in his locker. Even though that’s not much of a secret, I guess.” He shrugged, shot them all another grin, and left again. 

It had been a secret to Guanlin and the knowledge sat uncomfortably in his stomach, made him nervous. Drugs were _illegal_. Which means Jihoon wasn’t above illegal things. Murder was also illegal. What if Jihoon _had_ been serious about killing Woojin? 

Panicked thoughts subsided into bored day-dreams. He was silently revelling in the satisfaction it gave him to go against what he had promised his mother and not study. She wasn’t here to yell at him for it and wouldn’t be here for another few hours. It was like a little vacation. Maybe, Guanlin thought, he should go on a real vacation, and never come back. Running away and never having to study again sounded like quite the plan. 

“Gentlemen, it is lunch-time.” Mrs. Kwon’s voice suddenly interrupted his reveries.

“What? We’re having our lunch here?” Jihoon asked. Guanlin thought that this was probably not the first Saturday Jihoon spent in detention. He had to know where they were having their lunch, right? Maybe he was just trying to annoy their teacher. Most likely. 

“There’s a risk we’ll stain school property with our food here, you know?” Jihoon added while kicking the ripped up copy of Twelfth Night into Mrs. Kwon’s field of sight “accidentally”. He was definitely trying to annoy her. 

“Well, Mr. Park, as you know, that doesn’t change the fact that you’ll be having your lunch here.” 

Jihoon huffed in faked shock. It elicited a small chuckle out of Jinyoung behind Guanlin, even though he didn’t think anyone besides him had heard. 

“Are there even drinks here, Miss?” Jihoon spoke up again before Mrs. Kwon could turn away. 

“What?” She asked. 

“I think we should get drinks, Ma’am. I get dehydrated very quickly.” Daehwi chimed in. 

It amazed Guanlin that no matter how different all of the students here were, when faced with the opportunity to annoy a teacher, they could suddenly work together. 

“I’ve seen him dehydrated, Ma’am.” Woojin provided. “It’s not pretty.” 

“We can’t risk that, Ma’am.” Jihoon said.

“We really can’t, Ma’am.” Woojin agreed. 

If Guanlin hadn’t known, he wouldn’t have guessed that the two of them were at each other’s throats only 10 minutes ago. But right now he was too amused by their teacher silently fuming to worry about it. 

“Alright-” She allowed and was cut off by Jihoon jumping out of his seat. 

“I can go get drinks from the cafeteria.” He offered, but was quickly shut down by a sharp hand gesture from Mrs. Kwon. 

“Definitely not. You.” She pointed at Daehwi. “And you.” She pointed at Jinyoung, who wasn’t looking at her. “You’ll go.” 

Guanlin softly tapped on Jinyoung’s desk to get his attention and pointed in the direction of their expectant teacher when he looked up. With a small sigh, Jinyoung stuffed his sketchbook into his bag and followed a few steps behind Daehwi, in the direction of the cafeteria. 

“After they’re back you’ll eat peacefully and then resume to work on your essays.” Mrs. Kwon told them. She narrowed her eyes at Jihoon. “I don’t want another reason to come back here till you’re dismissed.” 

“We’ll try our best, Miss.” Jihoon cheerily promised and held her icy glare for a few seconds more, before she left them. 

Guanlin realized in that moment that he had been left alone with Woojin and Jihoon _and_ the tension that was back between them as soon as the door closed behind Mrs. Kwon. He briefly considered calling her back in, but he concluded that her wrath would probably be the bigger evil for him. 

***

Jinyoung had never realized how far away the library was from the cafeteria, nor had he particularly cared. Right now he did care. 

“...Anyways, I guess if Samuel’s Dad wasn’t literally our Spanish teacher, we would have never been found out. That was kind of stupid on our part.” 

Daehwi had been telling him the tale of how he’d landed himself in detention even though Jinyoung had never asked him to. They had been walking in silence for about a minute and Jinyoung would have liked to keep it that way but Daehwi had started talking and just hadn’t stopped. 

Now, Daehwi probably expected him to ask follow-up questions. Jinyoung did have some questions actually, for example why Daehwi’s other friends weren’t here or why they couldn’t just have waited a few hours to get milkshakes like any other normal person. But questions would mean answers and answers would mean having to listen to more of Daehwi’s blabbering, so he stayed silent. 

It seemed to be working for precisely two minutes, until they reached the vending machine in the cafeteria. 

“So, why are you here?” 

Jinyoung sighed. “I killed someone.” 

“Sure you did, that’s why you’re in detention, not in prison.” Daehwi rolled his eyes but he seemed to be taking Jinyoung actually giving him a reply as encouragement. 

“You can tell me, you know? We’re in the same boat here.” 

Jinyoung let his eyes wander across the brands on Daehwi’s shoes and his clothes, his perfectly styled hair despite this being a Saturday in detention. “I don’t think we ever even swam in the same ocean.” He decided. 

Daehwi’s smile fell. “It’s a figure of speech…” He muttered. 

Jinyoung would have felt bad for it, if it hadn’t been true. It pissed him off that Daehwi thought them to be equals now just because they were stuck in the library together for a few hours. He could tell him whatever he wanted, could trust him with his deepest darkest secrets, and it wouldn’t matter because Daehwi would go back to pretending he didn’t know him as soon as school started on Monday. 

So instead of feeling bad, he revelled in the peaceful quiet that they started their way back in. The little pang in his chest when he looked up and saw Daehwi staring down at his feet with knitted eyebrows was not guilt or pity, it was simply joy at Daehwi’s silence, he told himself. 

If he was being honest, Daehwi was not a bad kid. He had never picked on Jinyoung in the three years they’d been at this school together, had never picked on anyone as far as Jinyoung could remember. Jinyoung wasn’t even sure if Daehwi was friends with the kind of people who’d made fun of him all these years, he just knew that those people had about the same social standing in this place as Daehwi and Woojin had. Money, connections, the school logo on their chest- weren’t they all the same? 

He wondered if any of the bullies he’d encountered would have reacted to what he’d said the way Daehwi had. It had only been the truth, no judgement, just an observation. He and Daehwi reigned in different circles. Daehwi really reigned in his, Jinyoung did his best to disappear. It shouldn’t have come as a surprise to Daehwi, but judging from the fact that he was still not meeting Jinyoung’s eyes, it had.  
They were nearly back at the library, when the still present pang in his chest made Jinyoung halt in his steps. 

Daehwi looked back at him in question. It seemed like he was worried about what Jinyoung would say. Like he cared about what Jinyoung had to say. If Jinyoung squinted, he could have guessed Daehwi was scared. 

It felt weird to have someone look at him like that, anxious for their judgement. Usually he was on the receiving end of judgement. He hated this reverse. 

“I’m… just here.” He said. 

“...What?” Daehwi titled his head in confusion. 

“I don’t have to be here.” Jinyoung explained. “I just came here for the hell of it.” 

Daehwi apparently expected it to be a joke. He looked at Jinyoung for a moment, like he was waiting for him to start to laugh it off first, but when Jinyoung just looked back, his eyebrows furrowed. 

“Are you serious?” 

Jinyoung nodded. 

“You could have just slept in and spent the day at home, but you came here instead? For no reason at all?” 

“I do have reasons.” Jinyoung defended himself, but dropped Daehwi’s gaze. He didn’t necessarily want to tell him about his reasons. 

He could feel Daehwi’s eyes still on him, inquiring, for a long moment before the other boy spoke up again. “Is it your parents?” 

Jinyoung didn’t mean to, but his head snapped up in surprise at the question and at the sincerity in Daehwi’s words. It seemed to be obvious in his expression, because Daehwi shrugged half-heartedly. “You reacted kind of weird when we were talking about parents earlier, so I thought…” He trailed of and Jinyoung continued staring at him. 

He stared, and thought and stared some more, and then he nodded because he thought that it didn’t matter what oceans they swam in, right now they were stuck in the same pond. 

Daehwi nodded too, as if he understood. Jinyoung didn’t think he did but he didn’t want to tell him. He thought that Daehwi was probably trying his best to understand and maybe he even appreciated it. 

Daehwi had a soft smile on his lips when he nodded towards the door of the library. “You think they murdered each other yet?” 

Jinyoung chuckled. “Poor Guanlin.” 

***

“So, Woojin.” 

He only barely suppressed an annoyed groan when Jihoon sat back on the desk in front of him again and folded his hands daintily. “What do you want?” 

“I know we had our differences-” Jihoon started. 

_Like you threatening to murder me._ Woojin thought bitterly, but didn’t say it. Jihoon wouldn’t have actually done anything, he was pretty sure. 

“-And I apologize for that, I didn’t have a very good morning.” 

“My condolences.” Woojin said as sarcastically as he could. 

Jihoon nodded slowly. “Thank you. Now that we have put our differences aside-” 

“Did we do that?” 

“We just did.” 

Woojin blinked at him. He didn’t agree and Jihoon knew that, but he was tempted to go along with this just to see what happens. Jihoon was intriguing like that. 

“Okay.” He nonchalantly answered. 

“Great to see we’re on the same page. Now why are you here?” 

Woojin scoffed. “Why would I tell you that?” 

“Because I asked? I’m just confused, you see. You don’t seem like someone who likes losing. Saturday detention is about as much loss as you can get in this place.” 

_You don’t seem like someone who likes losing._

“So I’m wondering, what is a winner in life like you doing in this place full of losers. No offence, Guanlin.” 

“None taken.” Guanlin gave back absentmindedly. He seemed busy trying to balance his pen between his mouth and nose. 

“I’m not a winner because I want to be.” Woojin muttered quietly. 

“What was that?” Jihoon leaned closer. Woojin knew that he’d heard him. 

“I’m here because my father and my coach think it would be the best.” It wasn’t a lie, it was just very vague. Woojin didn’t think Jihoon actually cared so this would have to do. 

“Hm, yeah. Papa knows best, no doubt.” Jihoon nodded importantly. “Hey, Guanlin?” 

The pen dropped to the ground. “Yeah?” 

“Does your father think detention is the best for you?” 

“Uhm.” 

“I bet your old man wants _only_ the best for you, right? Say, do you go on fishing trips sometimes? Baseball games? Do you help him with the BBQ on Sundays during summer?” 

Guanlin looked kind of overwhelmed with all the questions. Woojin felt like Jihoon was getting at something way too reminiscent of their earlier conversation and he didn’t like it.  
“Let him be.” He warned. 

“I’m just trying to gather information here.” Jihoon reasoned and hopped off the table to walk towards Guanlin. “You see, kid-” He started, his tone almost conversational. “I’m not really knowledgeable in the whole father-son harmony thing. The last time I tried to have a conversation with him my father was drunk off his ass, called me 7 different variations of an asshole and threatened to beat the shit out of me if I didn’t get lost.” 

Guanlin looked up at him wide-eyed. It made Woojin angry how Jihoon kept playing his cards to get certain reactions out of someone. He did it now with Guanlin, he’d done it earlier with him, with Daehwi, with Mrs. Kwon. 

“You’re ridiculous.” Woojin told him while rolling his eyes. 

“Ridiculous?” Jihoon repeated. “You think it’s ridiculous that my father threatens me whenever he sees me?” 

“You’re exaggerating to scare Guanlin. That’s ridiculous.” 

Jihoon laughed, but it was a small, bitter thing. “You think I’m exaggerating?” 

“I do.” 

“You think I’m lying?” 

“Kinda.” 

When Jihoon quickly turned back to him there was something in his eyes that Woojin couldn’t quite place, something uncontrolled and sad, something that seemed to burn. He didn’t get to dwell on it for a lot longer, because Jihoon had raked up the sleeve of his shirt and was pushing his forearm into Woojin’s face. Three scars were blooming there, ugly and red against the soft skin. 

“You see this? Do these look exaggerated to you? They’re about the size of cigars, right? Is that ridiculous to you?” He lowered his arm and his fiery gaze held Woojin’s for a few painstakingly long seconds, before he quietly continued: “That’s what you get in my house when your mom picks up the rumours about you in the grocery store.” 

Woojin knew about the rumours people told each other about Jihoon. People said he was a drug addict, a dealer, a criminal. Woojin had heard some underclassmen once say that they’d heard that Jihoon bad killed a man. But the most common rumour that you heard around the halls was that Jihoon was gay. Nobody had ever confronted Jihoon about any of the rumours, probably because they were scared of him. 

Woojin had never known what to make of it, had usually just tuned out the conversation when it started to revolve around the mystery of Jihoon’s sexuality. When someone asked him why he always got quiet when they were talking about it, he’d say that he didn’t know Jihoon and couldn’t say anything about it. It was true, but the subject also made him nervous, settled in his stomach uncomfortably, brought up thoughts he wanted to ignore. He didn’t need rumours about himself going around school.

He had gotten to know Jihoon that tiny bit more today, and he still didn’t know what to make of it. If the rumours were false or not, it had seemed like Jihoon didn’t care, like he didn’t care for anything. It seemed like he didn’t care if people thought he was gay, like he didn’t care how many days he had to spend in detention, like he didn’t care if he and Woojin fought or not. But right now, the look in his eyes made Woojin think that he did care, that he had always cared but that he didn’t want to let it show. 

It was vulnerable in a way that nobody had ever seemed in front of him and it made him regret everything he’d said to Jihoon all day. 

“I’m sorry.” He said, and he hoped Jihoon understood how serious he was. 

The flames in Jihoon’s eyes subsided slowly as he kept holding Woojin’s gaze. It was a peculiar kind of tension between them, not the angry kind it had been all day, but different. 

It was suddenly broken when the door opened. 

“They _didn’t_ kill each other!” Daehwi cheerily observed, to which Guanlin replied: “They were pretty close, though!” 

“Nobody’s surprised.” Jinyoung mused while he threw a can of soda into Jihoon’s already expectant hand. 

The weird kind of tension was gone and with it the tension that had been there all day. 

*** 

“This is a terrible idea.” 

“You already said that, Guanlin.” 

“I know, but it doesn't change the fact that it's still a terrible idea.” 

“Shh!” Jihoon cut off whatever Jinyoung wanted to answer. “You guys really don’t know how to sneak through a school.” 

“Well, we don’t usually have to sneak through school.” Woojin gave back. 

“I don’t even know why we’re doing this.” Daehwi whined. He couldn’t help the slight whine that carried with his voice. They were sneaking through the school corridors god-knows-why and it made him nervous and when he got nervous his hands got all clammy and when his hands got clammy he whined. It was a law of nature

“We’re nearly there.” Jihoon promised. 

Daehwi sighed and fell back a bit so he was walking besides Jinyoung. “What’s he doing?” He asked. 

Jinyoung shrugged. “How am I supposed to know?” 

“You’re here more often, didn’t he do this before?” 

Jinyoung shook his head. 

Daehwi sighed again. “Why are we even out here with him?” 

“Sounded like more fun than staying in the library, I guess.” 

Jinyoung had the audacity to chuckle at the whine Daehwi gave as an answer. It kind of made Daehwi want to whine less, made him less nervous, to hear Jinyoung laugh. 

Their conversation earlier had been uncomfortable on a lot of levels. Daehwi had wanted to tell Jinyoung that he didn’t think he was better than him just because of his circle of friends, that their popularity didn’t mean anything but he hadn’t been able to help the thought that maybe Jinyoung had a point. Maybe their popularity did matter and Daehwi had been looking down at him even though he hadn’t even known Jinyoung. 

He had thought about it and had come to the conclusion that it was the case, that he was a terrible conceited human being stuck in a terrible feedback loop of popularity and Jinyoung had every right to hate him. He had come to the conclusion that Woojin was exactly the same and that that was probably the reason for the constant tension between Jihoon had him and he had come to the conclusion that both he and Woojin deserved the way Jinyoung and Jihoon reacted to them. 

It had come as a surprise to him when Jinyoung had humoured him in the hallway. It had come as an even bigger surprise to him that something seemed to have changed between Woojin and Jihoon as well when they went back. Right now, the two of them were walking beside each other in front of him, not talking, but also not trying to murder the other with looks. And he was here with Jinyoung and Jinyoung was laughing and maybe, possibly, they could manage to break out of the feedback loop. 

“There we are.” Jihoon stopped in front of a locker littered in stickers and smeared on swear words. They weren’t actually allowed to put anything on it from the outside. 

He opened the lock and turned back to look at Woojin with a grin. “The combination is 6969.” He said with a wink.

Woojin didn’t dignify it with a reply, but Guanlin did: “Can we please just hurry up and go back?” 

“Someone’s an eager model student.” Jihoon chuckled and reached into his locker for a small paper bag. 

“What’s in there?” Woojin inquired. 

“Wouldn't you like to know.” 

Despite his apparent secrecy, Jihoon unpacked the contents of the bag. Guanlin gasped. 

“Is that-” 

“You can’t be serious.” Woojin groaned. 

Daehwi though he heard Jinyoung next to him chuckle again. 

“Less complaints, more hurrying. Guanlin wants to get back to finish his essay.” Jihoon mused as he got to his feet. He briefly considered the small package of weed in his hands, before reaching forward and stuffing it in the front of Guanlin’s huge hoodie. “Hold onto that, would you?” 

He busied himself with closing his locker while Guanlin stared at the bag of his hoodie like it was growing limbs. “This is marijuana.” He whisper yelled and sent a panicked look towards Woojin. “Marijuana!” 

Woojin just huffed and turned to follow Jihoon as soon as he got up and started making his way back towards the library. Guanlin stayed put for another moment, turning his wide eyes on Jinyoung instead. “Do you approve of this?!” 

Jinyoung shrugged, and Daehwi grabbed a hold into Guanlin’s arm and pulled him with them. “We have to hurry up if you don’t wanna be caught with drugs in the school corridors.” 

They didn’t get far. After the second turn they took, they heard the tell-tale click of Mrs. Kwon’s heels in the next corridor, and Jihoon promptly turned on his heel and ran into the opposite direction. 

The others followed him not even a step behind, even though Daehwi wasn’t too sure Jihoon knew where he was going. 

“We’re dead, we’re going to die, she’s gonna catch us and kill us.” Guanlin murmured next to him. 

“Shut up.” Daehwi hissed. 

“You’re jinxing it.” Jinyoung agreed, but he seemed way calmer than Daehwi felt. 

Woojin seemed to have picked up on Daehwi’s earlier worries and whisper-yelled: “We gotta turn left next.”

“Bullshit.” Jihoon gave back and got ready to turn right, but Woojin grabbed his wrist and yanked him into the corridor on their left.  
Jihoon struggled for a second but then gave up and let Woojin pull him forwards. 

They ran until they reached the glass doors usually leading out into the courtyard, but now they were closed off and there was no way for them to go forward from here. 

“Grand idea.” Jihoon huffed out. “Turning left. Wonderful plan.” 

“Shut up.” Woojin bit back. 

“We’re done for.” Guanlin whined again. 

“No you’re not.” Jihoon sounded nearly annoyed when he said it. “Only I am.” 

“What?” Woojin raised an eyebrow. 

“Keep my memory alive.” Was Jihoon’s only kind of explanation while he reached up and patted Woojin’s cheek. “And you.” He pointed at Guanlin. “Hold on to my weed.” 

And then he took off into the corridor they came from, running in the direction opposite of the library and started to yell out lyrics to a song Daehwi’s parents would probably not let him listen to. 

“Idiot.” Woojin hissed and for a second it looked like he was gonna take off after Jihoon, but Jinyoung cut in: “We gotta go back to the library.” 

They faintly heard Jihoon’s voice echo through the building as they quickly made their way back into their seats. Only five tense minutes after they had sat down, the door opened and Jihoon came in, followed by Mrs. Kwon. 

“I’m telling you Miss, I had a vision!” 

“Shut up.” 

“I suddenly thought I should try out for a sports scholarship and I immediately felt the need to start training so I went to the gym to-” 

“I said shut up.” 

Jihoon fell back into his seat behind Daehwi and Woojin with a huff. Mrs. Kwon had looked at him with disdain the whole day but it had been nothing against the daggers she was shooting now. 

“This is all a joke to you, isn’t it?” 

“Detention? This institution? You? You have to be a bit more specific.” 

“All of it.” Mrs. Kwon gave back. “You don’t give a damn about anything here. You run around provoking everyone and then can’t deal with the consequences.” She took a step closer to his desk. “Pulling the fire alarm was a joke to you too. I wonder if you’d find it funny if your house, your family- if your drugs were on fire.” 

“They shouldn’t be, Ma’am.” Jihoon spoke up. “Lai has all of them.” 

Daehwi heard Woojin next to him quietly chuckle at the jab. Mrs. Kwon’s attention was immediately on him. “You think he’s funny? Visit him in 5 years, Woojin, and you won’t think this is funny anymore.” 

She turned her glare back on Jihoon. Daehwi thought it was crazy that she was lashing out at him like this, when Jihoon hadn’t really done anything to harm someone or something. He’d simply disobeyed her, had questioned her authority. Adults were fucked up. 

“You’re gonna turn out just like your trainwreck of a father.” Mrs. Kwon spat. 

It seemed to flick a switch within Jihoon. He had been nonchalant before, willing to tune her out, but now his eyes flicked up to her with a fire in them that rivalled her iciness. 

“Shut up.” He sat quietly. 

“What, you don’t wanna hear the truth?” She asked. “Is that also a consequence you don’t want to deal with?” 

“Shut up.” Jihoon said again, with more force this time. 

“Miss-” Woojin spoke up, but Mrs. Kwon didn’t even spare him a look. 

“Your life is a one way street towards failure, Jihoon. You missed the point where you could have turned around years ago and now you’re just stubbornly rushing towards the dead-end of alcoholism and criminality. Congratulations.” 

“Fuck you!” Jihoon yelled into her face. There were so many raw emotions in his voice, so much rage, but their teacher didn’t seem phased. She seemed satisfied, like his outburst was exactly what she had aimed for. 

“I think it would be better for you to spend the rest of your day secluded, Jihoon.” She calmly said, as if she hadn’t just called Jihoon’s entire life a dead-end street, as if he was in the wrong, being angry at her. 

Woojin tried to speak up again. “Miss, I think-” 

“I don’t care what you think, Woojin.” Her voice was as hard as her look staying on Jihoon. “Mr. Park if you would please follow me.” 

Jihoon got up with jerky movements while Mrs. Kwon was already heading for the door. The sound of her heels made Daehwi feel sick. 

None of them said a word after the door fell shut behind the two of them, for a long time. It was quiet as they heard their steps outside fade, as they heard nothing for a few minutes, as they heard only Mrs. Kwon return to her office and let the door fall shut. It was quiet for another few minutes until Daehwi slightly jumped when he heard the door open again. 

“It’s so easy to pick locks!” Jihoon announced as he ventured back into the room. “Also I think she probably just heard the door fall shut, move, _move!_ ” 

He dove to the floor underneath the table Woojin and Daehwi were sitting on just as Mrs. Kwon came back in. She looked furious at having to be back there for the second time within 20 minutes. 

***

“What was that noise?” Jihoon heard Mrs. Kwon say while he was trying to breathe as quietly as he could, crouching in front of Woojin under the table. 

“What noise?” He heard Daehwi ask, and at the same time Woojin said: “There was no noise.” 

They had covered for him earlier and he had wanted to laugh because of their fake solidarity. Now he could nearly believe they weren’t doing this for their own good. His heartbeat calmed down after a few more seconds of the others denying anything Mrs. Kwon accused them of. He was pretty sure he was safe where he was, he couldn’t really imagine the teacher crawling along the ground looking for him, that was too low even for a creature of hell like her. 

With this calmness though, came boredom. There were many places to sit in a school building but under a table, not allowed to make any noise, was definitely one of the more boring ones. 

Above him, Daehwi and Woojin were still talking to Mrs. Kwon, all to keep Jihoon’s cover. It was really nice of them. Perhaps, Jihoon thought, Woojin was getting a bit too chummy with him. The thought didn’t bother him, not at all, he rather enjoyed it actually, but Jihoon was curious and maybe a bit of a masochist before anything else. He wondered what it would take for Woojin to remember that he actually hated Jihoon’s guts. 

Maybe he should try and find out, have a bit of fun in the process. 

Mrs. Kwon was giving Woojin a stern warning about how he was going to end up just like Jihoon if he kept disrespecting her. Jihoon couldn’t help a smile. Woojin wouldn’t turn out like Jihoon even if he tried. 

“Do you want that, Woojin?” 

“Well, Miss” Woojin started to reply, and Jihoon took that as his cue. “I don’t think you’re being very-” He cut himself off when Jihoon rested a hand on his knee. 

“I’m not being very what, Woojin?” 

Jihoon slowly let his hand wander up Woojin’s thigh. 

“Uhm.” Woojin intelligently replied. Jihoon had to suppress a snicker. 

“Yes, Woojin?” Mrs. Kwon sounded slightly more exasperated as she had before. 

Jihoon’s hand had nearly reached Woojin’s hipbone and he was just about to repeat its journey on Woojin’s other thigh, when a sharp pain in his stomach threw him slightly back against the front of the desk. He couldn’t help the small groan that escaped his lips after Woojin had kicked him. Immediately, he could hear Daehwi starting to cough to cover up the noise, Woojin did the same and soon all four of them were coughing in varying degrees of credibility.

“Was that the noise you heard, maybe?” Daehwi asked. 

“It _is_ very noisy.” Guanlin reasoned in between the most fake coughs Jihoon had ever heard. 

“You boys are unbelievable.” Mrs. Kwon muttered under her breath. “I’ll be back in my office.” She said then, her tone louder and sharp. “Don’t make me come back in here again.” 

Her heels clicked away on her way out of the room and as soon as the door closed behind her, Jihoon made his way out from under the desk, feeling Woojin’s glare on him the entire time. 

“I was trying to help you, you know?” 

“I do know that!” Jihoon grinned, as he got to his feet. He threw Woojin a wink. “I wanted to pay you back.” 

He chuckled at Woojin’s suffering sigh and went over to Guanlin. “Care to give me my dope or did you smoke it all already?” 

The boy hurried to fumble out the bag. “What do you need it for?” 

“What could I _possibly_ need it for?” 

“You’re not really gonna get high in Saturday detention, right?” Woojin seemed to have gotten over their little moment pretty quickly.

“Well, not alone!” Jihoon answered, before making his way to the far corner of the library that held a few couches. He thought it probably had been meant to serve as a cozy reading space for students but now people just napped there during study hall. Study hall wasn’t happening that day, so they could use it for Jihoon’s purposes. 

“You have absolutely never in your life smoked a joint.” Jihoon laughed, while Daehwi started coughing. 

“Do I look like I have?!” Daehwi probably was trying for annoyed, but between his own giggles he didn’t quite manage. 

“Neither has Guanlin and he’s doing fine.” Jinyoung pointed out. 

“Guanlin is doing so fine, Guanlin is doing great!” Guanlin agreed. It sent Daehwi into hysterics again and brought a smile to Jihoon’s lips. 

He turned around and looked at Woojin who was sitting a few steps away from them, sulking, even though he probably wouldn’t admit he was. Jihoon got up and walked over to him, just standing there until Woojin looked up. 

“What?” 

Jihoon didn’t immediately reply, just held Woojin’s eyes while he took another drag from the joint he was still holding. After neither of them said anything for nearly a full minute, Jihoon extended a hand. “Come on.” 

“Where to?” Woojin seemed sceptic, as he had for the last 10 minutes of sulking. 

“Trust me.” Jihoon tried. He hadn’t thought it would work, but to his surprise Woojin got up with a sigh and gestured for him to lead the way. Maybe he was really getting a little too chummy with him. 

They ended up in the little room meant for language studies, that nobody ever used for that. A lot of spaces in this library weren’t used like they were meant to. 

“So?” Woojin asked, as Jihoon closed the glass door behind him. 

“Wanna try?” Jihoon grinned and held out the joint to Woojin even though it had gone out at that point. “I have a lighter too.” He added. 

“That’s what you brought me here for?” 

“What, were you hoping I brought you here for something else?” Jihoon wiggled his eyebrows suggestively. 

Woojin pointedly looked somewhere else. “You have problems.” 

“ _I_ have problems?” Jihoon scoffed. He expected Woojin to retort, to tell him exactly what kind of problems he had and why his life was a failure. A few hours ago, he was sure Woojin would have done just that. Now, Woojin just released a long breath and then extended his hand for the joint. 

Jihoon took a few steps closer to where Woojin was standing with a smile while he looked for his lighter in his pockets. “You do everything people expect you to do.” He said. “That’s a problem.” 

“Were you expecting me to do this?” Woojin asked quietly. Jihoon thought there was something in his eyes that he was misreading, that couldn’t be there. 

He didn’t reply, only smiled again. “Have you done this before?” He asked, motioning to the still unlit joint in his hands. When Woojin shook his head, he stepped even closer to him. 

“I’ll help you.” 

Woojin watched him while he held the joint between his lips to light it. “You do everything people expect you to do too, you know?” He said. “People just expect you to be an asshole.” 

“I’m helping you get high.” Jihoon gave back. “Would an asshole do that?” 

He didn’t wait for Woojin’s reply, just gestured for him to come closer, until there was only about half a step between them. “You know what shotgunning is, right?” He didn’t wait for Woojin’s nod again, before he took a long drag and reached up to pull Woojin’s face closer to his own by the back of his neck. 

Their opened lips were only a breath apart as Jihoon blew the soft smoke into Woojin’s mouth. They stayed like that as Woojin breathed it out again, the smoke curling into the air around them. 

“What would you would do if there were no expectations?” Jihoon whispered. “If you could do whatever you want?” 

Woojin’s eyes seemed hooded as he thought for a moment. They were still as close as before, Jihoon could feel his pulse against his fingers still resting against Woojin’s neck. 

Woojin shrugged. “Too many possibilities.” He replied, just as low as Jihoon. “What about you? What would you do?” 

This was getting way too serious for Jihoon’s liking. He grinned. “You, maybe.” 

A loud yell from outside whisked the smoke around them and the moment away. 

***

“Guys! Come here for a second! All of you!” 

Guanlin had wandered off a few shelves down from where Daehwi and Jinyoung were still sitting. He wasn’t entirely sure why anymore, maybe to look for Jihoon and Woojin? The two had disappeared a few minutes ago, Guanlin was probably just going to make sure they hadn’t fought. He nodded to himself. That was probably it. 

As he made his way back to the small arrangement of couches now, he saw the two of them join them from the other direction, seemingly unharmed. There was a peculiar smile on Jihoon’s lips and a kind of dazed look to Woojin’s eyes. Had Jihoon convinced him to smoke? It hadn’t seemed possible before, but Guanlin hadn’t thought a lot of things possible before. 

It had for example seemed impossible for Daehwi and Jinyoung to ever get close but there they were, Daehwi’s legs resting on Jinyoung’s lap. It had seemed impossible for all of them to be able to settle here together for a talk comfortably and without someone forcing them to, but that’s what they did. 

“So, real talk you guys. What are we doing here?” Daehwi started. “We still have those essays to write, too.” 

Jihoon groaned. “Don’t remind me. ‘Who you think you are’” He mocked Mrs. Kwon. Woojin next to him laughed quietly. 

“I think we’re all weird.” 

“Very true.” Jihoon nodded. “So why are you here, weirdo?” 

He had asked him that before, during lunch, and Woojin had avoided the question. Guanlin expected him to do the same now, but he didn’t. “I... I’m not proud of it.” He muttered. 

“Not all of us can be proud of landing themselves in detention.” Jihoon shrugged. “It’s fine, we won’t judge you.” 

“I think you will.” Woojin retorted. 

“How about you let me decide that for myself?” They looked at each other for a moment and Guanlin thought it was weird that it seemed like they were talking to only each other when all of them were right here. 

Woojin dropped Jihoon’s gaze with a small sigh soon after and looked at his hands.

“We were in the lockers after the game last week and there was this guy… He’s new, I don’t know his name. Anyways, my teammates were talking about him. He’s pretty thin, lanky, and really bad at Basketball, so they were making fun of him.” 

He made a small pause, maybe expecting one of them to say something, but no one did, not even Jihoon. Guanlin felt a little uneasy with the story Woojin was telling them. He had been at the receiving end of such “fun” way too often since he started going to this school. 

“He defended himself.” Woojin continued. “He talked back to them, they pushed him, he pushed back.” He stopped again. 

“So what did you have to do with this?” Jinyoung prompted. 

“He asked me to help him.” 

Guanlin thought that he’d like this story a whole lot better if Woojin had helped the boy. But the uneasy feeling in his stomach and the look on Woojin’s face told him he wouldn’t like the story at all. 

“You didn’t help him.” Jihoon guessed. 

Woojin shook his head, a faint movement. “I… I wanted to.” His eyes were still fixed on his wringing hands. “But I looked at him and I looked at my teammates and I know what they expected me to do. And what my father expected me to do. What kind of star player beats up his team mates for the lousy new kid?” A bitter laugh forced itself over his lips. It was one of the saddest sounds Guanlin had ever heard but he couldn’t find it within himself to feel bad for Woojin. 

“What did you do?” He asked, even though he suspected he knew. 

“I beat him up.” 

None of them said anything, before Woojin continued, his voice rough. “I didn’t do it for me or for my team mates. I just kept hearing my father’s voice. ‘Woojin, we can’t have losers in our family. You can’t be weak.’” When he looked up, tears were in his eyes and they laced into his voice. “I hate what it made me do.” 

“Would you do it again?” Jihoon next to him asked. He seemed surprisingly calm. 

Guanlin had expected him to get angry, to talk with the same boiling anger that Guanlin could feel in his own stomach. He knew Woojin was saying the truth, that he hadn’t wanted to do it- but he had. And Guanlin felt sick with the thought of it. 

Woojin shook his head. “No. No, I wouldn’t.” 

“What did your father say?” Jihoon asked then. 

Woojin’s face scrunched up into a bitter grimace. “He didn’t even get mad. He was just annoyed that I got caught.” He angrily wiped at his face. “I think he was actually proud that I did it.” 

“So you got what you wanted.” 

Woojin turned to Jihoon with a glare, to defend himself but he closed his mouth again when he met Jihoon’s eyes. Guanlin looked in between the two of them and couldn’t say which one of them he agreed with. He wanted to hate Woojin for doing what he did, wanted to blame him but at the same time he knew that the pressure your parents put on you could drive you to do unspeakable things. He knew it all too well. 

Jihoon held Woojin’s eyes for a few seconds, then huffed. “Your old man and mine should go bowling sometime. They sound like they’d get along great.” 

He then turned to Guanlin, because it was the only story Jihoon hadn’t heard yet, Guanlin presumed. He wished it would stay like that. 

“So, what are you in for, buddy? I get it’s hard to beat Woojin’s emotionally laden story-” Woojin halfheartedly hit his shoulder. “- but we’ll still give you applause afterwards.” 

The thought made Guanlin laugh. “I doubt that.” 

“What, did you beat someone up too? Didn’t think you had it in you.” 

“I didn’t-” Guanlin started. 

“So I think I can applaud literally anything else that might have gotten you here.” 

“I just don’t think Guanlin gets applauded a lot.” Jinyoung chanced. 

“Don’t you? You seem like you’re at the top of all your classes.” Jihoon raised an eyebrow. 

“I am.” Guanlin nodded. Mostly, he was. The uneasy feeling in his stomach was back, for different reasons now.

“So what’s the deal?” 

He wondered if he should tell them about everything. They weren’t his friends, not really. Guanlin didn’t have real friends in this school. But neither were they Woojin’s friends and they’d listened to him. And they weren’t Jihoon’s friends but still had helped him hide. 

“I take a poetry class.” He started. 

“Weird start, but go ahead.” Jihoon leant back in his seat as if he was expecting a good story. Guanlin was sorry he had to disappoint him. 

“I took it for extra credit, because I thought it would be easy.” 

“I took that class. Why’d you think it would be easy?” Jinyoung asked. 

Guanlin shrugged. “It’s poetry.” 

Jinyoung’s smile held a bit of pity and Guanlin couldn't hold it against him. He’d been pretty stupid. 

“I was wrong.” He continued. “It wasn’t easy. We had to write our own poem for an assignment. I failed.” 

“How so?” Daehwi asked. 

Guanlin answered with another shrug. “English poetry is hard to get right.” 

Woojin scrunched up his eyebrows. “So you failed the assignment. What happened then?” 

Guanlin dreaded this part of the conversation. They wouldn’t understand, he thought. But he remembered the angry tears on Woojin’s face and again, he decided he could take a chance. 

“Even if I got only As in that class for the rest of the year, that one failed assignment will be there and pull down my final score.” 

He could tell Daehwi was about to object something and tried to explain what he knew wouldn’t explain anything to them. “Doing well in school… was the only thing I thought I could do. It was the one thing making me feel better about myself.” 

“Better?” Daehwi asked. 

A sigh stole its way over Guanlin’s lips. “I know you probably can’t relate-” He started. “But when I look into the mirror, I don’t like what I see.” 

“Why do you not like yourself, Guanlin?” In Daehwi’s voice, confusion and pity mixed together and it made the feeling in Guanlin’s stomach grow infinitely bigger. 

He couldn’t bring himself to explain, to talk about the rest of his story. He pulled up his shoulders and mumbled: “I told you you wouldn't be able to relate.” 

Hopefully someone would change the subject, he thought. Hopefully they wouldn’t ask questions. 

***

Jinyoung could see that Guanlin wasn’t up for more talking, with the way he shrunk in on himself. He took it upon himself to help the boy. 

“Guys” He blurted out. The others turned to him expectantly and he needed a second to gather his thoughts, but the question had been whirring around his head for a while now. “What happens Monday morning?” 

“What do you mean?” Daehwi seemed taken off-guard with the question. 

“I mean…” Jinyoung wasn’t quite sure how to word it. “If I come up to you on Monday, Daehwi, what will you do?” 

Daehwi just stared at him, so Jinyoung continued. “You would pretend you wouldn’t know me because your friends will be there.” He provided. 

Daehwi vehemently shook his head. “I wouldn’t.” 

“You would.” Woojin quietly objected. “You know you would.” 

“I…” Daehwi gulped. “I won’t like to do it.” 

“So why just not do it?” Guanlin carefully tried. 

“For the same reason Woojin did what he did even though he didn’t like it.” Jihoon answered before Daehwi could. Woojin looked to the ground, but didn’t try to defend himself. He knew Jihoon was right, Jinyoung guessed. 

Daehwi didn’t want to accept it, apparently. “You don’t know what it’s like. The people me and Woojin hang out with-... You don’t know that kind of pressure.” 

He wanted to say more, maybe he wanted to explain himself, but he was interrupted by Guanlin scoffing loudly. When Jinyoung looked at him, there were tears gathering in the boy’s eyes. 

“You think I don’t know pressure, Daehwi?” He brought out in between ragged breaths. 

“I mean-” Daehwi started, but Guanlin interrupted him again. 

“I understood what you mean and you’re wrong.” He didn’t seem to care for the tears streaming down his face as he kept looking at Daehwi. “You’re so conceited.” 

“What do you mean about the pressure, Guanlin?” Woojin asked. 

“Nothing.” Guanlin hurriedly answered. 

“You brought it up.” Daehwi reminded him faintly. 

None of them knew what to say afterwards while they watched Guanlin try to control his breathing again. Jinyoung hurt for the boy, wanted to help him, but he didn’t know how. He wasn’t good with helping people. 

“I tried, you know?” Guanlin spoke up again. “I tried to write the poem. My mother- she told me to not fuck up something so easy. But I did. I fucked up, I failed and- and now I’m here, and-” Another sob interrupted his words. 

Jihoon’s voice was softer than Jinyoung had thought it could be, when he asked: “Why are you here, Guanlin?” 

It took the boy a few seconds to answer and when he did, it was quiet, barely audible. “They found a ‘concerning amount of painkillers’ in my locker. They thought I was selling them.” 

“You wouldn’t have, you know...used them.” Daehwi seemed too shocked by the possibility to even say it out loud. “Right?” 

“Well, I wasn’t going to sell them.” Was all Guanlin gave back. He sounded resigned, like he was really talking about something from the past and somehow it calmed down the nerves that had bloomed in Jinyoung’s chest. 

“You should have considered it.” Jihoon pointed out. “Make a nice bit of money.” 

To all of their surprise, Guanlin huffed out a small laugh. “I should have, huh?” 

“It’s not like you’d need it though.” Jihoon continued and leaned forward to look at Guanlin. “You’re smarter than all of us together and one day you’ll use that big brain of yours to make more money than all.of us together.” 

Out of his mouth it sounded like a fact rather than a means to cheer Guanlin up. He made it seem like the only possible outcome. Jinyoung wondered what had happened to bring out this side of Jihoon, caring and concerned instead of defensive and cynic. Maybe, he chanced a thought, maybe this whole day meant more to any of them that he had originally expected. Maybe it was worth for all of them to show different sides. 

“He’s right, Guanlin.” Daehwi added, with a careful smile. “Who cares about poems when you can buy all the libraries in the world?” 

Guanlin shot a watery grin at all of them sitting there and all of them smiled back. 

Jinyoung thought that maybe they weren’t just showing different sides. Maybe they were showing their real sides. He also thought that their real sides were worth showing. All of them were different, but right in this moment there was a sense of camaraderie between them that made him reconsider his words from before, made him think twice about the way Monday morning would go. Maybe he should apologize to Daehwi. 

Right now though, he wanted to keep the comfortable atmosphere between them alive, wanted everyone to keep smiling. 

Jihoon turned to him suddenly, and Jinyoung would have expected a snide comment or a crude joke, hadn’t he seen the same thoughts in Jihoon’s eyes that he knew were in his own. He wanted to stay here like this too.

“Glad you came here today, weirdo?” He asked. 

Jinyoung nodded. “I made worse decisions.” 

“Decisions?” Woojin asked. “Why _are_ you here, Jinyoung?” 

Jinyoung chuckled quietly and he could see Daehwi do the same. 

“I just didn’t have anything better to do.” He answered. 

It felt good to laugh with everyone else. 

Jinyoung and Jihoon got what they wanted. The comfortable atmosphere that none of them had thought possible this morning, or only an hour ago, didn’t cease. It didn’t cease when Daehwi told them about the ridiculous milkshake flavour he had gotten on the day he had ditched school and it didn’t cease when Jihoon told them that pulling the fire alarm had been a mistake and he’d just told Mrs. Kwon it had been on purpose to annoy her. It didn’t cease when Guanlin demanded that it was too quiet in the library or when Woojin remembered he had seen a record player in the languages room. 

The music was terrible, but they made do with the little their school had to provide in records. Jinyoung thought his grandmother would probably enjoy the songs they were listening to, but while watching the others wildly dancing around the room, he couldn’t find it within himself to care. 

Jihoon manhandled Woojin into ballroom dancing to a song that was definitely not meant for it, while Daehwi and Guanlin had a competition on who could spin more before falling over. 

Daehwi tripped at some point and nearly fell on top of Jinyoung. 

“Whoups, hi there!” He giggled. “Come here often?” 

“I do, actually.” Jinyoung truthfully replied, suppressing a smile. 

“Maybe I’ll ditch school more often too so I can come here again, then.” Daehwi’s grin lit up his entire face before he got up and challenged Guanlin to a second round. 

It left Jinyoung with a warm feeling of hope in his chest that he hadn’t thought anything happening in Saturday detention could have given him. 

***

“Guanlin, do you still plan to write that essay?” Daehwi asked, after Jihoon had quietly closed the door behind him to sneak back into the room Mrs. Kwon had left him in. 

Woojin looked up at the clock. There was roughly half an hour left for them to spend here. 

Guanlin hummed confirmation to Daehwi’s question as he sat down in front of the empty paper on his desk again. 

“Wouldn’t it be unnecessary for all of us to write an essay?” Daehwi continued. “One essay in all of our name would be enough, don’t you think?” 

Guanlin looked up at him with a lopsided grin. “You just don’t want to write an essay.” 

Daehwi nodded, not even sheepish. “You’d write a better one anyways.” He reasoned. 

“You’re right.” Guanlin nodded, then patted the chair next to him. “But you guys can help me at least.” 

Jinyoung and Daehwi complied, but Woojin stayed where he was. 

“You can do this without me, right?” He piped up. It wasn’t that he didn’t wanna help, he just felt like he had to do something else. 

“Sure.” Guanlin shrugged and Daehwi waved a hand in the air. “You wouldn’t have been a great help anyways.”

“Gee, thanks.” Woojin rolled his eyes but smiled, because Daehwi wasn’t wrong. 

Slowly, he made his way to the library door. He had expected for one of them to ask him what he was doing, but all he got was Jinyoung calling after him: “Have fun!” 

Daehwi giggled, and Woojin could feel his ears turn red even though he wasn’t even sure what he was about to do. Jinyoung might as well have the wrong hunch, Woojin wouldn’t have been able to tell him. 

Jihoon was leant against the wall of a spare room filled with cleaning utensils and raised an eyebrow when Woojin closed the door behind him. 

“You lost?” He asked. 

“Possibly.” Woojin told him. 

Jihoon laughed. “You’re not sure if you’re lost?” 

Woojin shrugged as he stepped closer to him. “Maybe you can tell me.” 

He took the last step closer to Jihoon and quickly, before he could think too much about it, pulled the boy closer by his jacket and pressed his mouth to Jihoon’s. 

The kiss only lasted a few seconds, before Woojin leaned back again to look into Jihoon’s eyes. He found them glinting with a small smile. 

“Well, I think you’re definitely lost.” He said quietly, while he carded his fingers through the hair on the back of Woojin’s head. “But I also think detours are a great chance to make a journey more interesting.” 

When he pulled him back in, Woojin let him. 

***

“Jaehwan, can you do me a favour?” 

He had come to hate the sound of Mrs. Kwon’s heels approaching just as much as her students probably did, especially on Saturday’s. On Saturday’s, the annoying clicking usually meant more work for him that he didn’t want to put up with. 

Still, he didn’t really have a choice, so he put on the smile he had learned through his part time job as a barista during high school and turned to her. “What can I do for you, Miss?” 

He realized he probably couldn’t do the smile anymore without the matching barista-lines. Hopefully he wouldn’t ask her if she wanted extra cream with whatever she asked of him. 

“I don’t wanna put up with the kids.” She explained. 

_Then you have made a great choice in profession_ Jaehwan barely stopped himself from saying. 

Mrs. Kwon continued: “I told them to write an essay this morning. Could you go tell them they can leave, collect the essays and bring them to my office? Thank you very much.” 

She didn’t even wait for an answer before she clicked away again. 

“You’re free, pals.” Jaehwan announced, when he entered the library. “Mrs. Kwon doesn’t want to look at your faces anymore.” 

“The feeling is mutual.” Jinyoung muttered, and the other three snickers. 

“Weren’t there five of you earlier?” Jaehwan asked. “Where’d Jihoon go? Did she finally snap and kill him?” 

“No.” Woojin in front of him spoke up. “He’s in another room. I can go get him.” 

His hair stuck up funnily, Jaehwan realized. He thought about telling him but then Daehwi very unceremoniously nudged Woojin’s side and wiggled his eyebrows and the deep shade of pink the boy blushed had Jaehwan decide he didn’t want to know what was going on. 

“Yeah, do that. Tell him I’ll see him next weekend. Now all of you out, enjoy your life in freedom or something. Shoo.” He waved in the direction of the door while they were all already on their way out. 

When the door closed behind them he turned back to the desks, only to find one single sheet of paper with writing on it there. 

Oh, he thought. The snake isn’t going to like that. 

He picked it up and skimmed over the first few lines. 

_Dear Mrs. Kwon,_

_We accept the fact that we had to sacrifice a whole Saturday in detention for whatever it is that we did wrong. But we think you're crazy to make us write an essay telling you who we think we are…_

She was definitely not gonna like this, he decided and couldn’t help the satisfied smile spreading on his lips as he went to bring the letter to her office.

**Author's Note:**

> find me on [twitter](https://twitter.com/lilaliacs) if you have questions or just wanna talk!!


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